Hanging by a Thread
by ShiningGalaxy
Summary: Tessa Long had gone to Transylvania after much convincing from her concerned co-workers and knew that a good vacation away from everything is just what she needed. Well, that's what it was supposed to be, but fate had other plans when she meets Dracula, the Prince of Darkness, and as more time is spent at the hotel, feelings begin to form between the two, and maybe even a zing.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Hotel Transylvania or anything associated with it, I do however, own my characters Tessa Long, her mother, and any character that you know isn't in the movie(s) are mine...

 **Pairing:** Dracula/OC

 **xxx**

They had caught it in time.

That's what the Doctor had said.

Her mom was going to be fine.

That's what the Doctor had said.

Just a few more treatments and the cancer should be completely gone.

That's what the Doctor's had said.

The Doctor's were wrong as she stared at the casket of where her mother was being laid to rest, her eyes were red and puffy but there were no tears.

All there was, was nothing but complete emptiness, a hollow and broken part in her heart as she looked down at the lifeless body of her mother, her hands up near her chest with a bouquet of roses underneath, her eyes closed.

She looked peaceful, she looked asleep.

In the background she heard her family talking, but she didn't want to listen to them. Nothing mattered anymore. Her life had felt like it was completely torn apart.

And there was nothing that no one could do to bring back a loved one.

No matter how much you wanted to.

The sounds of thunder rumbling in the distance could be heard, long after the funeral ceremony had taken place, rain pattered down on the ground and she could hear her name being called but she could care less.

Why couldn't people see that all she wanted was to be alone with her mother one last time before she left her in that cemetery?

A painful lump had made its way into her throat and it was difficult to swallow as Tessa glanced at the tomb stone behind the freshly dug earth that had been filled back in. Slowly, the young woman made it over to where the head of the grave was and sat down, not caring about her black dress, nor caring about the fact that it was raining heavy now.

How long she stayed there, she didn't know, but a sob slipped past her parted lips as she placed a hand upon the cool stone, running it along her mother's name, reading over and over and over again the wording that was etched into it.

 _Mary Isabelle Long  
1972 - 2014  
Death leaves a heartache that no one can heal,  
love leaves a memory that no one can steal._


	2. Chapter 1

_...one year later..._

 _..._

"Girl, when are you ever gonna go on vacation?" Marina Connors asked, wiping her hands on her apron after bringing out some freshly baked banana chocolate chip muffins from the kitchen, placing them onto the shelf behind the counter.

Tessa stopped sweeping, glancing to her boss and placing a strand of blonde hair that fell from its bun earlier in the shift behind her ear and sighed, averting her gaze down to the floor.

"I don't have time for a vacation, Mare..." She muttered more to herself than to Marina, who in turn gave her a stern look, crossing her arms about her chest.

"Mhmm. All you do is work." Upon the pained look on Tessa's face, the older woman knew exactly why she had been working so hard, and it didn't take a genius to realize that working meant the young woman's mind was far from her mother's death, one that hit her more than anything and she had been struggling to come to terms with it.

Marina knew what it was like to have a death in her family, hell her own parents had perished around fifteen years ago by a drunk driver, so knowing what Tessa was currently going through Marina knew, but what Tessa was doing was overworking and putting her own health at risk by doing so.

Her blue-grey eyes seemed dull on best of days, barely smiling, looking exhausted, she rarely ate anything, and when she did it was if she was like a mouse. And let's not begin to how pale her skin was.

Sighing, Marina went over to where Tessa was sweeping the same spot absentmindedly, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and giving a small smile. "I know what you're going through, but you overworking yourself is not doing you any good if you end up in the hospital."

Biting the inside of her cheek, wanting to say that no one would miss her, Tessa knew that she would receive a nice smack upside the head for even muttering those words, let alone if anyone found out that she was even thinking it. So all she could in turn was nod. She was right, she needed a vacation.

"Where is the one place that you would like to go to?"

Thinking for a moment, one place came to mind as Tessa replied with; "Transylvania."

 **xxx**

That little minx.

Tessa knew from the moment that Marina had that glint in her eye after asking her where she would like to visit that something was going to go down, and sure enough, the next day she was given a plane ticket to go to Transylvania for a week, all expenses paid.

Tessa gave a bright, excited smile, her eyes finally sparkling with joy as she gingerly took the ticket from her bosses hand. Tears sprang to her eyes as she hugged Marina, thanking her for such generosity.

It wasn't every day when your own boss bought and paid for everything for a trip for you to go on because you were working so hard, and the gesture made Tessa's heart swell, it was such a sweet thing to do.

She could've kissed her.

"Get going you rascal." Marina smiled, chuckling as she glanced down at her watch, shoving Tessa towards the door, "Your plane leaves in about an hour and a half, so go get everything packed for a week and go and have some fun. I want to see that beautiful smile on your face and stories for when you come back, you hear me?"

"I will." Tessa gave a small wave, "Thank you."

"Have fun."

 **xxx**

Tessa mentally crossed off everything on her list that she could think of as she was grabbing her stuff from the taxi and placing it onto, quickly paying the driver as she placed her things onto the curb of the Toronto-Pearson airport, hoping that she didn't forget anything back at the place.

Underwear? Check.

Hygienic supplies? Check.

Pants and shirts? Check.

Make-up? Check.

Passport, Driver's license, cell-phone, charger, and earphones? Check.

She cursed then, eyes widening in panic as she reached into her beach bag, searching for her plane ticket and the credit card that Marina had given her to stay at any hotel that she wanted to and for her to get any sort of souvenir that she wanted to get.

Tessa did try and decline the card as Marina had gone through the trouble of getting a round-trip plane ticket for her, but the older woman had insisted and wasn't going to budge unless Tessa had taken it, resulting in her begrudgingly taking it from Marina.

She knew her attempt at winning the argument was futile.

And Marina knew it as well.

She sighed, well, it seemed as though everything that she needed for the trip was well and dandy.

At least her cat Maxi was going to be taken care of at her sister's place in Ottawa while she was away. Normally, she knew that her cat would've been fine without her there for a week, as long as she got someone she trusted to check in on her girl twice a day, but the last attempt at doing so ended in disaster as her furniture was completely scratched.

She was not a happy camper when she returned home.

"At least, you're gonna be with me in spirit, mama." Tessa muttered, placing her hand onto the two necklaces of the same colour and design as a small smile graced her lightly tinted pink lips, before grabbing her bags and heading into the airport.

 **xxx**

After a couple of stops and hours upon hours of flying, Tessa finally found herself at the airport in Transylvania, feeling jet-lag, yawning as she grabbed her bags from the conveyor and headed towards the door, her eyes widening a little when he saw an old-fashioned hearse barreled down the road, stopping abruptly in front of her, the door opened and revealed...a zombie?


	3. Chapter 2

**Just thought I'd mention this now, for those of you who are reading my works for the very first time. Sometimes stories will not get updated on a regular basis and could go weeks to sometimes months without being updated, and it's not because I'm losing interest, but I could be on course or out in the field, or could be just busy with other things as well.**

 **Also, my chapters, depending on how I'm feeling about said chapter they could be shorter or longer...I will try and make it as long as possible without taking away from the story.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **xxx**

"Hotel Transylvania? Really?"

 _"Yeah? What's wrong with staying there?"_

 _"_ Nothing wrong with it...it's just...I...uh...you know, it would've been much appreciated if I was given just a bit of a heads up. I mean, am I in danger of...of...of, you know, getting bitten by a werewolf or even a vampire? Or hell, there's zombies here too!"

 _"If I thought your life was going to be in danger then I would've made sure you were in a different hotel."_ Tessa could practically _hear_ the eye roll in Mariana's voice on the other end. She didn't have to see her in order for Tessa to know that that was exactly what the older woman was doing.

Tessa sighed, rubbing at her brow with slight irritation, knowing full well that Marina had done this on purpose, for what, she wasn't certain. "I-I'm sorry for being such a pain, just bit of a shocker when I saw a hearse with zombies stopping right in front of me, asking me who I was."

She heard a laugh on the other end, _"I felt you needed some sort of adventure in your life, may as well have it there, eh?"_

"I knew it!"

A click, followed by the dial tone was heard on the other end and Tessa frowned, looking down at her phone. "Great..." She muttered. Looking around her hotel room, she had to admit that it wasn't _that_ bad, it was still styled like it was back in the late 1800's, early 1900's.

It was creepy.

But, oh so, cool.

Sighing, she placed her cell on one of the dark bedside tables and sat on her bed. Many scenarios playing through her overactive mind. Now what would her mother say to her? Oh yeah, _Calm yourself down, unless you want to give yourself an ulcer or end up in the hospital for worrying about something such as this._

Closing her brown eyes she took deep breaths to try and calm her racing heart, replaying the conversation that her and Marina just had. It was true, and she knew it, Marina wouldn't have sent her to the hotel if her life was in any sort of danger and she then felt sort of foolish for even calling up and bitching at her for it.

God, she felt horrible.

She had the urge to reach for her phone and call Marina again, but knew that she'd be pushing her luck for calling her _again_ so late at night, instead, she scratched the top of her head and looked around.

Yeah, not too shabby.

Closing her eyes again, she began dozing off, not really knowing how long she had fallen asleep for until a knock on the door came. She yawned, stretching and cracking her neck, getting up from the bed and heading for the door.

Opening the door Tessa saw that no one was there, she looked to the right, seeing no one in the hall, and to the left and saw no one there either and a growl escaped passed her throat, she hated this game, and noticed that people played it here too.

It was annoying as all get out.

Closing the door with a huff, she turned around and yelped in fright, jumping back as she came face to face with a young woman, probably in her early 20's, was hanging from the ceiling and with such grace flipped, landing on the floor with barely a sound.

"Hello!" She waved, and when she smiled, Tessa could see her fangs and knew instantly she was a vampire.

"Hey there."

"Sorry for startling you, I saw on the guest list that you were from Canada and where I've never met anyone from there before I wanted to say hi."

Tessa giggled, "Well then, I'm glad to meet you as well. What's your name?"

"My name is Mavis, what's yours?"

"Tessa."


End file.
